# Dan Rolff — Red Harvest character guide

> Dan Rolff in Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Dan, Rolff, Daniel Rolff

**First appearance:** 0004-iii-dinah-brand

## Snapshot

A tubercular, educated down-and-outer who lives with Dinah Brand as her kept companion and errand boy, in love with a woman who slaps him in front of guests.

## Who they are

Rolff is a sick man with a tired, colorless face and a red spot on each cheek, taken in by Dinah when he had nowhere else to go and kept on laudanum and charity. He answers her door, runs her errands, and endures her casual cruelty, and the narrator senses that Rolff's devotion could curdle into something violent. His presence in Dinah's household makes him one of the first people the narrator wants accounted for when she is found stabbed, and his quiet humiliation gives the story one of its sharpest portraits of how Personville uses people up.

## Relationships

### [The Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/red_harvest_se/characters/the_narrator)

_psychological_

Dan Rolff, a morphine-addicted and disillusioned former doctor, serves as a reluctant and often resentful informant for the Narrator, bound by a mix of fear and grudging respect.

### [The Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/red_harvest_se/characters/the_narrator)

_psychological_

Dan Rolff, a morphine-addicted and disillusioned former doctor, serves as a reluctant and often resentful informant for the Narrator, bound by a mix of fear and grudging respect.

### [The Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/red_harvest_se/characters/the_narrator)

_psychological_

Dan Rolff, a morphine-addicted and disillusioned former doctor, serves as a reluctant and often resentful informant for the Narrator, bound by a mix of fear and grudging respect.

## In the story

### [IV: Hurricane Street](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/red_harvest_se/chapters/iv-hurricane-street)

A thin, sickly man with a tired face and educated voice; he is protective of Dinah and watches the narrator warily.

### [VIII: A Tip on Kid Cooper](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/red_harvest_se/chapters/viii-a-tip-on-kid-cooper)

Plays pinochle with Thaler and fetches drinks.

### [IX: A Black Knife](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/red_harvest_se/chapters/ix-a-black-knife)

Accompanies Dinah Brand to the fight, places her bets, and looks sick when Bush appears to be losing.

### [X: Crime Wanted—Male or Female](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/red_harvest_se/chapters/x-crime-wanted-male-or-female)

Sits in the dining room under the influence of laudanum, objects to Dinah's involvement with the narrator, is slapped by Dinah, and shoots at the narrator before being knocked out.

### [XIII: —$200.10—](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/red_harvest_se/chapters/xiii-200-10)

Rolff is sapped by Thaler's men, later recovers and holds a gun on the narrator, but is ultimately disarmed by Dinah's intervention.

### [XIV: Max](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/red_harvest_se/chapters/xiv-max)

Mentioned as being kept out of the investigation alongside Dinah.

### [XX: Laudanum](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/red_harvest_se/chapters/xx-laudanum)

Mentioned as a potential threat to Dinah Brand due to his unrequited love and access to laudanum.

### [XXII: The Ice Pick](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/red_harvest_se/chapters/xxii-the-ice-pick)

Escaped from the hospital during the night despite a fractured skull.

### [XXVI: Blackmail](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/red_harvest_se/chapters/xxvi-blackmail)

Theorized to have killed Whisper Thaler with the ice pick, believing Whisper murdered Dinah Brand.

### [XXVII: Warehouses](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/red_harvest_se/chapters/xxvii-warehouses)

Found dead, stowed under a cot in the warehouse.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/red_harvest_se/characters/dan_rolff
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/red_harvest_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/red_harvest_se/characters